


Untitled Trinity Blood AU

by Hittocere (JadeHittocere)



Category: Trinity Blood
Genre: AU Where Lilith Lives, Abel has a sword for some reason, Abel has a weird facsination with King Arthur, Abel is a dodgy old man, Caterina is a little shit as a 13 year old, Concept of allies through having kids with your enemies, F/M, Francesco isn't a total arse in this, I really don't know how that last one happened, Kain also isn't evil so far which is odd, Lilith is essentially the HR lady of the Empire while being a Saint, Mind your history, Starts out around when Abel met Caterina is essentially an alternate beginning into Trinty Blood
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-16 19:57:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18698155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadeHittocere/pseuds/Hittocere
Summary: An Alternate Universe in which Vatican Saint Lilith Sahl has convinced them that the best way to keep the peace between the world powers is to merge their bloodline with the of the other major world powers. Convincing a broken 900+ year old crusnik to open himself up again however is proving to be more difficult than both Lilith and Caterina bargained for. Abel is stubbornly the same stubbornly self sacrificing idiot he's always been, and for that Lilith will be eternally grateful. But his intuition leads him to meet Caterina earlier than she planned. Will this make or break the Lady Saint's plans for peace?I am terrible at summaries....





	1. Introduction

In the past relations between the long lived ones (the Methuselah) and regular humans (Terrans) had been difficult. The tentative peace had been hard to both achieve and keep with all the mistrust and bad blood between the two major races of the world. In the end the Black Lady Saint of the Vatican, Lilith Sahl had been the one to devise something clever enough to keep the peace and dissuade the world powers not to actively seek conflicts. Her idea was to merge the families of world powers to that of the Imperial royal family of the Empire. Currently she was waiting to find out if the Pope’s latest child would be a boy or a girl to make arrangements for the Vatican to be the latest of those families to claim a link to the line of Augusta Vladika.

As the Pope’s current wife was busy in labor with their child he was sitting comfortably nearby with Lilith as they awaited to find out if it would be a little boy or girl. Pope Gregory was always a pleasure to speak to regardless, so he and Lilith made small talk about the particulars of the world, even getting Abel to join them for a moment or two. The silver haired twin had spent most of his spare time down in the Sforza family crypt where his son was buried. The young man hadn’t lived past the age of 26, killed protecting one of the former Popes centuries ago. Since the young man had been killed defending the Pope he had been entombed in Rome with full Last Rites as part of an early peace agreement between the Vatican and the Empire.

Abel himself had been devastated, he was still held an endless amount of sorrow over it. Lilith could see the way it ate at him overtime, thinking he could have done something more to save him. In the end he dove head first into the Empire’s security to prevent such a tragedy from readily happening again. He had escorted Lilith here because of something he had picked up rumor wise, the Pope was only too happy to receive the two Crusniks.

Lilith watched in quiet amusement as one of the midwives brought the child over to the Pope. Fussing this way and that over the little bundle, a quick examination told both of them she was a healthy baby girl. The baby started to cry, and one of them took her away to be cleaned and fed.

“She’s beautiful your Holiness,” Lilith remarked with a soft smile, “reminds me of my daughter when she was young.”

“Indeed. It is my hope that one day she’ll turn into a wise and kind person like her mother,” the Pope responds with a grin, they can just make out the huddled forms across the courtyard area where they are fussing with the little girl, “now that we know it’s a little girl shall we continue our plans?”

“Since your child was a girl she will have her pick of the twin brothers of the Imperial royal family. That however will not be until she is old enough and ready for such things,” Lilith says crossing her fingers ahead of her in contemplation, “you’ve met one of them already.”

“Ah, so that young man is one of the Nightlords then, he reminds me of Lord Alphonse,” the Pope points to an old portrait hanging just across from them. Lilith moves to inspect the painting, and feels a huge pang of sorrow in her heart for Abel as the boy’s kind features stared back at her. The boy had sandy brown hair like his mother had, but he had Abel’s face besides that. The sharp features of the Nightlord twins, but Abel’s kind cerulean eyes.

 Her foster brother had been so happy at the time, and he had made a wonderful father. It was as if his whole world had been crashing down around him when Alphonse died. From there he had locked up his heart and hidden it behind a frosty exterior to protect himself from ever getting hurt like that again, which is what had lead to his current road of sorrow.

“Al would be so sad to see what his death did to his father,” Lilith mumbled touching the painted cheek of the boy, she swallowed her sorrows and turned to the Pope with a cheery face, “I’m glad your family honors him your Holiness. The gentleman that accompanied me was his father.”

“That explains why he spends all his free time down in the crypts, the poor man, I don’t know what I would do if I lost little Francesco or Caterina,” the Pope concedes, “he is welcome to remain as long as he likes.”

“He is here on business actually, I would not point out you have a portrait of Al to him however. He said he received word that someone was attempting to target your family while we were in the Empire,” Lilith confesses, “unfortunately that side of things is more his department than mine. You’d have to ask him if you wanted more information. What I can tell you is that if Abel received word of it, then it’s not a threat to be taken lightly. At the same time I would also tell you that if he’s here he’s going to do everything in his power to protect you and your family. It’s just what he does.”

“That’s both concerning and uplifting at the same time Lady Sahl,” the Pope responds looking properly worried, “would he be willing to work with my staff to help prevent such an attack or threat?”

“I’ve already spoken with Lord Nightlord, he’s given us some basic security measures to start with and means to start night patrols with the men to tighten our ranks,” the Pope’s personal security officer says coming into view, “I just came to offer our congratulations on a healthy baby girl your Holiness.” He bows before them, “Saint Sahl.”

“That’s good news, it means he’s doing more than simply brooding down there,” Lilith smiles sadly, “if you should have any issues locating him I would simply check the catacombs.”

“I shall keep that in mind Saint Sahl,” the man bows again, “in the meantime we’ll introduce the new patrols he suggested and tighten up the holes in our security he was able to point out earlier. If you’ll excuse me your Holiness?” The Pope nods with a frown, he turns his attention back to Lilith.

“Lord Nightlord sure works quickly, you’ve been here what, two days and already he’s picking apart my guards?” the Pope laughs.

“I wish he would think about more than security, but since Al that’s all he does with his considerable amounts of free time. Well, that and swordplay against his twin, but that’s a rare event what with Kain traveling around the Northern borders of civilization lately,” Lilith sighs, “perhaps you could speak with him your Holiness?”

“I could certainly make the attempt, if you’ll pardon me Saint Sahl, I have a newborn to go dote over for the moment,” the Pope inclines his head before standing. As he leaves a procession of guards follows behind him. Lilith sighs making her way down into the catacombs.

Her work for the time being was done, she just had to introduce the newborn Sforza girl to the twins when she came of age. Once she selected either Abel or Kain the newly forged link in their alliance would grow only stronger. She doubted either of the twins would be particularly pleased about it being their turn, and she didn’t blame either of them. Being told you were expected to produce an heir for the sake of peace at 900+ years old was tiring, she could understand that all to well, but at the same time Lilith held herself and Seth to the same standard should it have been a male heir.

One of her own heirs was the reason the royal family had bright fiery red hair again after several bland centuries, of course after a while they had forgotten that, but that was why they only did this every couple centuries. Seth had a son that had lived over in Hispania a couple centuries ago, Kain had a daughter that had started rebuilding the northern areas near where Sweden and Norway half a century ago. Abel’s unfortunate son Alphonse had been the only one to die so young. Most of their children had inherited their advanced genetics and lived well into their early hundreds.

She just hoped that maybe the little girl would end up picking Abel despite his rather frosty exterior at present. As much as she didn’t mind Kain she also knew him well enough that charisma he oozed was more of a façade than anything else. Abel wore that frosty exterior like armor to protect the kind heart lurking just behind it. He had an endless soft spot for kids and their younger sister Seth, and a gift for strategy that no one save Lilith could match.

The thing with Abel’s gift was that he had the enhancements to go with it, he could hear the softest click of a drawer from almost two hallways away where as she was lucky if she could hear a sentence from after it echoed down a corridor. Seth undoubtedly had the best vision for analyzing small items, but Lilith could detect the faintest of aromas which helped her with her background in Medicine. Kain had the best vision distance wise, and was roughly between Abel and Lilith for hearing. Each of them had utilized their gifts to help them run the Empire, and previously the colony to the best of their abilities.

Even though Kain was trained to lead the colony through everything he became something more like the public speaker for the command staff, leaving the majority of the decisions to Seth who sympathized and mothered them like children and to a lesser extent Abel who took care of making sure all the behinds the scenes work and security allowed them to live their lives in peace. Lilith was left to her path of healing through both medicine and faith, more than once becoming essentially the colony’s HR head along with their department of morale.

As the crimson haired Crusnik thought through all of the changes that had occurred since they returned from the colony a small but well represented area of the catacombs came into view. A large marble platform with an elegant obsidian façade coffin lay silhouetted by moonlight and grand carvings befitting a prince. Just over said coffin her silver haired companion lay draped with his head buried in his arms, all those liquid silver strands cascading down his back into pools of the molten color on the marble floor. In his snowy white uniform trimmed with cerulean blue that matched his eyes he looked almost like a marble statue that had been added in the last century to her godson’s tomb.

She walked forward almost silently, as to not disturb anymore than necessary. She stopped just below the platform he was kneeling on, taking a moment to say her own prayers before continuing.

“Abel...” Lilith touched his shoulder lightly, a pale face full of sadness turned to face her before she continued “the Pope is now the proud father of a little girl. Were you still going to stay here now that we know and your security concerns have been passed on? Or were you going to return home to the Empire for now?”

“I will remain here, I’ve made the proper arrangements with Seth and the Yenceri,” he says quietly before slowly stretching up to his full height, “I cannot in good conscious step away knowing that a threat was made against the Pope and his family. Not after the last time. There’s also no real way to know when they’ll attack given the information we have about it. Worse yet our help would be too late if everyone is in the Empire. No, I will remain, if nothing does happen then it will be to simply pay my respects to Al while I’m here.” Lilith nods stepping up to her old friend and pulling him into a tight embrace.

“If you’re that sure about staying,” Lilith nods hugging him tighter, “I will be back to supervise when the young lady is old enough to choose. Until then please be careful, Seth would be most upset if something happened to you Abel.”

“Nothing is going to happen to me, the Pope, or the Sforza family,” Abel responds returning the hug, “we will all be fine.” Lilith certainly hoped that he would be, humans lives passed by all of them so quickly after all.


	2. Meeting Caterina

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A different take on Abel and Caterina's meeting.

_Twelve Years Later…_

“ _Sir! There’s been a security breach on the grounds_ ,” came up the call on the radio from one of the fallen guards she had just passed. Caterina ducked behind one of the curtains as she heard the sounds of unfamiliar footsteps, she was too busy trying not to end up dead to pay much attention to its chatter past that. She had seen the way the inquisition soldiers that had been stationed around the manor had been unmercifully slaughtered. Slaughtered by the vampires that infiltrated her family’s estate, their bodies lined the outside walkways going between the main part of the house that received guests and their personal rooms and salons.

As soon as the strange footsteps were gone she kept running, she was looking for the hidden corridor to the catacombs. Her father had said if anything happened to hide there, that there was someone who could help her there. He had never said who or why the person would help, just that if she was ever in need of rescuing that there was someone in the catacombs that would come to her aid.

It took her several passageways to get this far, and she skidded to a stop as she came face to face with several of the vampires murdering her maids. She wasn’t quick enough, she knocked over one of the vases filled with fresh flowers on an end table. The shattering sound of the smashed pottery gathered their attention faster than any gunshot. Eyes widened in fear she backed up, and kept backing up only to run into something solid behind her. She chanced a glance upwards to see a man, with long silvery hair **way** past his waist and steely blue eyes staring at the vampires gathered in front of her.

“Get behind me,” the tall man says hand going to the ancient looking sword at his hip.  It’s an Albion long sword she thinks at first, until she’s the jeweled hilt, nothing that specialized has been made outside the Empire in centuries unless it’s purely ceremonial. Caterina shuffled behind him, shocked as the vampires made no attempt to move forward at first. “You are all trespassing, leave now and I will let you go with your lives.” His voice, while it had been kind when addressing her, sent a shiver down her spine as it dripped with displeasure. She wanted to grip the back of his long white coat, but something deep inside her told her not to touch him right now. That the silver haired man standing between her and certain death was far more dangerous than even handful of vampires that had destroyed her life in the blink of an eye.

“You stand before a pack of some of the strongest Methuselah outside of the Empire, and have the gall to tell us to leave? Just who do you think you are Terran? Some sort of hero or something?” the lead one jokes with a wicked smile that promises all manner of bad things.

“I am no hero,” he responds, “I’m simply a person that was in the right place at the right time. I will ask you once more politely, there will be no third time.” Caterina watches as he unsheathes the ancient blade, she can see engravings marking up and down the center of it. There is also a glint of wickedness to the edge, that sword has seen more battles than she’s seen dawns, of that she is certain.

“That sword, did you steal it from the Empire? Nowhere else could craft a blade so fine as that,” one of them hisses.

“It was a gift from my sister actually, not that it matters if I tell you lot,” he answers flipping the blade elegantly so it is between the vampires and the two of them, “so what will it be?”

“I think,” one of them says tapping his long fingers across his jaw before moving their hand out in an exaggerated motion, “that we’ll just kill you first, then the girl. That sounds like a most excellent plan indeed!” As his nails stretch out into talons Caterina cringes as her silver haired protector barely looks to have twitched his sword, she feels a breeze from him as his coat flutters from the barest of movements. Yet she can hear the tell tale clanking of his nails clattering to the ground from where they’ve been sliced off.

“How could a mere Terran move that fast?” one of them hisses.

“You sure make a lot of assumptions,” the silver haired man’s tone is flat, “how can you be so sure you aren’t the food source here rather than this innocent little girl?” Caterina watches as his hair starts to float upwards like a crown of molten silver, she can just make out his whispered sentence of “Nanomachine 02, power release to 40% approved.” The vampires across from them start to charge, but her protector merely flicks his sword sending a bolt of something blue their way. Most of them are blasted backwards as it hits them, one of the unlucky ones is sent through a wall.

“What… just what the hell are you?” a bloodied up vampire responds before launching another attack at the man in front of her.

“Does it really matter?” he asks quietly before he slices off their head in a neat arch, “you were warned to leave. There is no third warning.” Caterina watches as he steps forward into the center of their group cutting down each of them with lazy strikes of his sword. As he cuts through them she can see **their** blood swirling around him in a hazy mist as he cuts through the vampires that step forward to take the place of their fallen allies.

She’s never seen anything like it, as he turns she can see his steely eyes have become red as blood that drips from their wounds. All of them are dead within a few moments, he cleans off his sword and turns to face her with a concerned expression.

“Are you alright young miss?” the silver haired man says leaning down to her level, “I’m afraid I was too late to save everyone else.” Caterina steps forward cautiously, the vampires in the room are very dead at this point. She doubts any of them could have survived having their heads severed in that manner. Not to mention all the blood… where is all of it coming from?

“I’m okay,” Caterina says eyes still watching the blood dance in a misty cloud around him, “why is it doing that? The blood I mean…”

“Ah… yes I can see how it would be a bit distracting. Unfortunately its waiting for me,” he chuckles giving her a weird smile showing off large fangs. He removes his coat and shirt before to large black feathery wings burst from his back. The misty blood pulsating around him all but flies straight into the inky black feathers as the last few drops of it fade into them they dissolve before her eyes, almost like they were never there… like that of a dark angel’s.

“Were those…” Caterina watches as his hair falls to land across his shoulders and back, eyes fading from bloody red back to cerulean blue.

“Wings? Well what else would they be?” he responds redressing himself quickly, “we should get moving, I doubt that was all of them.” He offers her a hand, “come with me, I mean you no harm little miss.” Caterina takes his hand, and they travel out towards the family’s private quarters. Caterina leads the way to her rooms, seeing as she has no idea what his plan is.

“Where did you come from?” Caterina asks, “on the grounds that is.” Her protector looks out the window looking down into the courtyard.

“The catacombs,” he answers only glancing her way, “if you came here to pack up some of your belongings to take with you then I suggest you hurry. The only safe place is down there or in sunlight.” His hand rests on the hilt of his sword as she scurries about the room looking for the items she would find worth coming back for. The first of these is a small leather bound satchel she stores her mother’s silver brushes and mirror in. The second is her personal journal that lay undisturbed upon her desk, it has a few of the letters her father had written her over the years as he traveled.

The last of the irreplaceable items she grabs is the small silver framed photo of her mother before she passed away years ago. All of these are placed together on the bed while she looks for her small suitcase to stuff them into with a few changes of clothes. Her would be protector doesn’t ask why she grabs them, he just waits checking outside and placing himself between her and the large windows of her room. She hears a random scratching noise coming from somewhere outside, and hesitates as she’s stuffing the last of her things into the bag.

“Don’t worry about the noise miss,” he says comfortingly, “I won’t let them hurt you. Is there some place I can take you where you will be safe? Once the sun has risen that is?” Caterina finishes clipping her bag closed. She thinks for a moment before she answers.

“The Vatican, Rome. Even if father is dead they would still protect me and my brothers,” she says looking up into his concerned features, “are you worried?”

“Should I be? The Methuselah are no threat to me, but they will be difficult to drive away from you if they have as many as I think they do coming after you,” he explains, “you are to be a key link a bond of peace Miss Sforza. It is my duty to protect you and see that you live long enough to see that peace your late father, his Holiness and Saint Sahl were trying to achieve.” Caterina frowns, looking at him curiously.

“You call them what they call themselves, yet you refer to her as Saint Sahl,” she says looking at him suspiciously, “you also look really familiar…”

“I have no idea why **I** look familiar to you, I can assure you that I’ve only met you today miss,” he says raising up his hands, “what I can tell you is we’re about to have company of an unpleasant sort again.” He places himself between her and the door, fingers in a death grip around the hilt of his sword.

“You!” there’s an evil sounding hiss directed their way, “are you the one who slaughtered my friends?” A woman demands coming up and jabbing him in the chest with her finger.

“That depends, were your friends the humans here or the Methuselah?” he responds remaining between her and the strange woman.

“Answer me!” she screeches at her protector.

“Mister,” Caterina tugs at his coat, “she’s not supposed to be here. Father told me someone was in the catacombs who could help me, so I believe you.” He looks from Caterina to the woman poking him, his expression turns ice cold.

“Leave this place,” he warns, “I will protect the girl. I will protect the humans.” The woman jumps back, her expression dark. It turns out she’s also a vampire as she attempts to lunge for Caterina. Her silver haired protector draws his sword and slices her neatly in half before she can do so.

“We should go now,” Caterina points out as she grabs her bag, “where is the passageway you came through?”

“This way,” the silver haired man answers, “follow me.”

 

* * *

 

Abel leads the young Sforza girl down into the catacombs with virtually no difficulty. He has to cut through several more vampires on their way to the passageway though. The girl however seems not to be frightened by his Crusnik appearance… then again she does have a real threat after her, a threat that he keeps cutting down with that appearance active.

“Who are you mister?” she finally asks as he leads her down to Al’s resting place.

“A friend of the Vatican’s,” he answers as he reaches behind Al’s coffin for his own bag.

“A friend of the Vatican’s? One that not only resembles Prince Nightlord, but also sleeps next to his coffin?” she asks with a note of disbelief, “I do not like playing games with people I am supposed to be able to trust. I would guess you are a relative of the Nightlords judging by your appearance alone.” Abel turns to her with wide eyes, how on earth does she know what his son looked like? He died centuries before she was born!

“How could you possibly even know what Al looked like?” he asks staring at her with narrowed eyes.

“Clearly you didn’t see his portrait upstairs as we went past my father’s study. Prince Alphonse Nightlord died protecting a Pope of Rome. Did you think a hero of the church would be forgotten so easily?” she chastises him, “you have his eyes.”

“There are lots of people with blue eyes Miss Sforza,” Abel points out hoping he can avoid revealing too much.

“Then why does he look like he could be your brother if not for your strange silver hair color?” Caterina points out with a scoff, “his face looks exactly like yours. What is he to you?”

“I thought he took more after his mother than that…” Abel muses aloud, “he is a relative, I will admit that much. The Nightlord family wishes to see you protected Miss Sforza.”

“Caterina,” the girl corrects, “and you are?” He could have laughed, this girl reminded him so much of Seth right now, only Seth didn’t have to worry about being assassinated since she had an entire set of guards to prevent that.

“Arthur,” Abel lies, easily thinking of the stories about Camelot and its protectors, “now we really should get going Miss Sforza.”

“If you want me to go with you then you will tell me why you were down here sleeping next to the corpse of a Nightlord when you could have very well have had a guest room up in the manor,” the blond points out, “I trust you to keep me safe from the vampires up there trying to kill me. I do not trust traveling any further with you until I know more about you and what you were doing here.” Abel sighs rubbing his temples, and this was the girl either Kain or himself would sleep with sometime in the future to create a further peace between their peoples? Lilith was asking an awful lot of them this time.

“Fine, then we can both sleep down here tonight then,” he says with a fake smile. No sane human child would want to sleep in a crypt, “I do hope that won’t be a problem for you Miss Sforza?” He offers her the cot he’s been using with a gesture of his hand.

“It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve snuck down here and fell asleep,” she points out, “you are willing to put your life on the line to rescue me, but you won’t tell me a thing about you.” Abel scoffs, he should have told her he was Zorro, then again he was going for believable not inconceivable.

“You already know more than I would like you to Miss Sforza,” he responds more tactfully, “and that I represent the Nightlord family from the Empire.”

“What were you doing with all that vampire blood earlier, you know when it…” she makes strange gestures with her hands he takes to mean his wings.

“Do you not think it strange? Human beings feed off cows, fish and other creatures. Methuselah, or rather vampires of old feed off human beings? Could there not be a creature that feeds off those predators? Something that finds vampires to be their prey?” he asks with a toothy smile, “I am a Crusnik, a vampire that feeds off of vampires Miss Sforza. Certainly that can’t be outside the realm of possibilities? Not with everything else you’ve seen tonight.”

“That would explain what you said earlier,” she mumbles thoughtfully, “about them being a food source rather than me.”

“Yes,” he answers staring her down, “regular human beings however are not on our diet. Saint Sahl is also a Crusnik, that’s how she was able to stop the war between the Vatican and the Empire so easily in the past.” The girl stares at him, and Abel wonders just how much more of this impromptu questioning he’s going to have to take. He’s not about to admit that drinking human blood makes Crusniks violently ill, and that was one mistake he’s never going to repeat again.

“Why are you so defensive about being a Crusnik? Earlier you were nice, even kind to me. Now you just keep throwing up walls trying to block me out,” she asks seriously, “I just want to know you, the person who’s been putting himself between me and all that death up there.” Abel frowns at that, why did she have to have such a logical reason to want to get to know him as that?

“Look Miss Caterina, most people who see an active Crusnik don’t exactly take it well,” he explains trying to stay calm about it, “most of the time the kindest stories still end with us being called either demons or monsters.”

“I’m not most people Arthur, if that’s even your name, and you are neither a demon nor a monster. You are Crusnik, something that eats the monsters that will probably haunt my nightmares for years. You are a man, a regular person who just showed up out of nowhere and saved my life even though no one asked you to,” she points out, “to me that says you are a good person. Regardless of what species you are, or what you look like when you go to protect something you care about.”

“Those are extremely kind words Miss Caterina, about a person you think is lying to you,” he points out with a sad smile.

“He’s lying to me about himself, his intentions have been nothing but honorable so far,” she counters, “you can’t let the world’s cruelties tear you down like that Arthur. You have to show the world that even the darkness can spawn something kind.” She rolls out the cot, and he’s half amused that she’s just going to sleep rather than argue with him further.  



End file.
